Every year, there’s an ongoing debate of whether Dancing With the Stars should be a competition based on celebrity status or actual dance. It’s about time in the season where people who are somewhat unfamiliar with the show need to be reminded, it’s a popularity contest first and foremost.
Dancing With the Stars at the Core is a Popularity Contest
Although many fans treat Dancing With the Stars as a typical competition show, every year there’s an ongoing debate of whether celebrities should be voted for based on popularity, or actual improvement in the ballroom. Hypothetically, the show casts celebrities that have no ballroom dance experience, and fans get entertainment from seeing these celebrities improve week to week. But, that’s not always the case.
In the past few years, a specific argument has repeatedly gone viral. Many wonder if celebrities who have past dance experience should be cast on the series, since it ultimately leads to voting being more of a popularity contest. Take this current season for example, both Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Dewan are known for their experience in professional dance. Unsurprisingly, they’re both consistently scoring high and continuing in the competition on judge scores and fan votes.
When it comes to celebrities like these, people are ultimately voting for them because they’re fans of their work, not necessarily improvement. In the same vein, fans are voting for Guillermo Rodriguez, who is trying, but hasn’t gotten any better, just because he’s a comedic icon.
So this leads to the age old question, should people be voting for celebrities because they’re celebrities, or because they’re actually improving on the show? For a show like America’s Got Talent, American Idol, or The Voice, it’s typical to vote for the contestant who’s improved the most. Truthfully, there’s a world in which Dancing With the Stars has a different base to the voting structure, and that’s okay.
It Hasn’t Always Been the Most Improved Dancers in the Finale
One of the best examples of popularity over improvement was Andy Richter on Season 34 of DWTS. That being said, Andy isn’t MY favorite example, so instead we’ll rewind to Season 33 when Team USA Olympian Ilona Maher competed on the show. Even though Ilona did show HUGE improvement throughout the competition, (and ended up as a meme for saying “been better Carrie Ann”) it truly was her fanbase that kept her in the competition.
There’s not many people that could forget multiple steps, having timing be completely off and still make it to the finale of the season. During Week 3 of the competition, Ilona and her partner Alan Bersten danced a jive to Quiet Riot’s “Cum On Feel the Noize,” during Hair Metal night. Ahead of this week, they had scored 18/30 and 21/30. But due to multiple mistakes in the dance, their scores dropped leaving them with 26 out of 40.
From there, Ilona was determined to get better on the season. But, it was ultimately her storyline that convinced fans to vote for her. Throughout her time in the limelight, she’s focused on how important it is to show different female athlete body types. Without that storyline, and fanbase, there’s a huge chance she could’ve been eliminated during that week of the competition.
Instead, Ilona continued in the competition, and eventually got higher scores. She even placed second behind Joey Graziadei and Jenna Johnson. It’s hard to believe that would’ve happened, if it weren’t for her storyline.
Words by:
Corey Cesare Corey Cesare is Talent Recap's Managing Editor and featured YouTube Host. She has a love of all things pop culture and an unhealthy obsession with celebrities. Corey earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Cinema/Screen Studies from the State University of New York at Oswego in 2021. She spends her spare time shooting astro, nature, and portrait photography, and coming up with movie ideas that she hopes to make into a film someday.
